Ex-senator Used Influence With Employer

May 12, 1989|By BOB KEMPER Staff Writer

NEWPORT NEWS — Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul S. Trible Jr. intervened to stop the campaign of a Gloucester County Democrat who hoped to take a state House of Delegates seat away from the Republican incumbent.

In an interview Wednesday with Daily Press editors and reporters Trible said he helped stop the candidacy of Michael T. Soberick - who is just joining a law firm with which Trible is affiliated - to protect Harvey B. Morgan, a Trible supporter who has held the 98th District seat since 1979.

Trible intervened by calling the managing partner of the firm, who then called Soberick to express the firm's concern about his candidacy.

Soberick got that call from Douglas Kahle, managing partner of Shuttleworth, Ruloff, Giordano & Kahle, on Tuesday, just as he was scheduling the press conference for the next day to announce his candidacy.

Facing the possibility of endangering the private practice he was just trying to start, Soberick ended his candidacy before it began. He said Wednesday his plans to remain out of the race haven't changed.

People involved in the campaign said Soberick already had his firm's consent to run before he started making plans for his announcement.

They said Soberick and Trible had not talked together, but Trible was told of Soberick's plans by a member of the firm and he did not object to it, although he did make it clear that he was supporting Morgan.

Kahle said members of the firm had been contacted individually about the possibility of Soberick running for office, but there had not been an outrightendorsement of his candidacy by partners.

After talking with Trible, Kahle said, he talked with Soberick about concerns the firm had with how much time a political career could take away from his time at the firm, making it more difficult for Soberick to establish the practice he would need to earn a living.

Trible said Soberick "has a much better future" with the law firm since dropping his candidacy because he now will have more time to work on firm business.

Trible told the newspapers' editorial board that he would do "everything honorable" to ensure more Republicans are elected to the General Assembly, which, with its current Democratic control, is bound to give Trible problems should he be elected governor.

"I certainly appreciate his doing that," said Morgan, who had been out of town earlier in the week while events were unfolding. "I was not aware that he had done that."

Trible said Wednesday he learned of Soberick's plans to oppose Morgan when a woman he described only as "a very good friend" called him Tuesday just as word of the candidacy was starting to spread around the Middle Peninsula.

Without Soberick, who for six years has been Gloucester County's attorney, the Democrats have no candidate to oppose Morgan and little chance of finding a replacement at a time when party members thought Morgan may be vulnerable.

Democrats cited the fact that Morgan has been unable to do anything about the state's plans to reimpose tolls on the George P. Coleman Memorial Bridge at Gloucester Point against residents' wishes.

But Morgan said it was "ridiculous" to blame him for the tolls since he worked harder than many of his critics to try to convince the state to build a new bridge upriver from the Coleman span.

The Commonwealth Transportation Board - which, Morgan points out, was appointed by a Democratic governor - decided in March to widen the Coleman bridge instead, and to charge a $1 toll and 60-cent commuter fee to pay for it.